If i was in the business in Mugla, i would be looking East, the emerging Muslim market will pay. They are not welcome in the West at present, loads of Islamophobia around, but a brother Muslim country, with western amenities, drink and gambling if you want it, burka wearing not frowned on, would work for me if i was Iranian.

SunExpress expects rebound in Turkish tourism in 2017
Turkey’s tourist industry is set for a rebound in 2017 following difficult times in 2016, according to the general manager of SunExpress, a joint venture of Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines.

“We believe Turkey will become a very attractive holiday destination in 2017 when both quality and price are considered. SunExpress is an important tourism partner for Turkey. Additionally, it is a strong partner in the Turkish business world and will remain so. We trust that every aspect of tourism will improve in 2017. In this respect, we are not considering downsizing; on the contrary, we will do our utmost to remain capable of meeting improving demand in a timely manner,” said Jens Bischof in a press statement.

The company “has proven that it is an important catalyst for Turkish tourism even in a year like 2016, in which many tough ups and downs were experienced in Turkey. Flying the greatest number of tourists to the Mediterranean and Aegean regions of Turkey via scheduled and direct flights, SunExpress contributed a great deal to Turkish tourism by welcoming onboard one of every five tourists from Western Europe in 2016,” the statement read.

“Despite all the hardships and tough conditions encountered in 2016, we continued our flights with determination. When compared to the previous year, we carried 8 million passengers with a slight decrease of 9 percent compared with 2015, which is a respectable accomplishment in such a rough year,” said Bischof.

Bischof also said that while the decline in the tourism sector in Antalya, Turkey’s top tourism destination, reached 30 percent in 2016, SunExpress only suffered a 9 percent decline in Antalya while increasing its market share to 36 percent.

“Our market share in our transfer center, İzmir, increased to 76 percent. We, as SunExpress, will continue to focus on Turkey as our main capital in 2017 and will continue welcoming tourists from Germany, Austria and Switzerland with 450 scheduled flights a week,” he added.

Still, Bischof admitted that there were fewer tourists considering Turkey as a holiday destination.

“On the other hand, there is a limited amount of capacity at other holiday destinations in the Western Mediterranean region. This in turn causes prices to increase,” he said.

Together with SunExpress Germany, which was founded in 2011, SunExpress boasts a flexible fleet structure.

The airline also operates in Egypt and Bulgaria, which have respective market shares of 30 percent and 26 percent each, Bischof said.

He also expressed his support for the “bring your family too” campaign, which has highlighted direct scheduled flights from 13 Turkish cities to 40 different cities in Germany, where more than 3 million Turks currently reside.

“We therefore naturally support ‘bring your family too’ campaign. We act as a bridge for those who want to spend their holidays with their families and friends in their native land. Thus, we want to continue our promotional offers to enable them to spend their holidays in Turkey,” said Bischof.

The campaign was launched by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Six brand new B737-800 will also join the SunExpress fleet in 2017, officials said.
February/21/2017

Hürriyet Daily News
Antalya set to host over 4 mln tourists from Russia, Ukraine
The Mediterranean resort province of Antalya is set to host over 4 million tourists from Russia and Ukraine and experience an increase in the number of arrivals from Israel after a daunting year, according to a top local association.

The head of the Antalya Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ATSO), Davut Çetin, said there was significant rise in early bookings from Russia, Ukraine and Israel.

“We expect to host more than 3 million Russian tourists this year. Our target for the Israeli market is to see 400,000 tourists from this country. We also expect to host around 1 million tourists from Ukraine after the visa-free travel goes online,” he told a group of economy journalists on March 2.

The Turkish tourism sector has seen a surge in early bookings mainly from the Russian market. Half of Russia’s holidaymakers have chosen Turkey as their top travel destination in 2017, a report released by the Association of Tour Operators in Russia (ATOR) showed in January. The most popular Turkish destinations have again become Antalya’s Alanya, Side and Kemer, where the hotels have made up to 50 percent of cuts in their prices.

Çetin noted that Antalya is likely to see more than 3 million arrivals from Russia in 2017, unless “any negative development erupts.”

Problems in European market

Çetin said there were, however, problems in the European market.

“We have faced a lower demand especially in the German market. The Dutch market is stable, while the bookings from the U.K. market have fortunately been on rise. We will understand our position in the European markets better when we attend the fairs there. Despite everything, we need to be hopeful and work a lot,” he added.

Summer bookings to Turkey by German holidaymakers are down by more than half after a spate of bombings, with tourists instead heading to Greece and Egypt, according to German market researcher GfK, as reported by AFP on March 2.

The bookings from Germany were down 58 percent at the end of January from a year ago, according to the report.

Çetin noted that Antalya will likely host over 400,000 Israeli tourists and 1 million tourists from Ukraine.

“We already reached over 572,000 arrivals from Ukraine when visas were gone online. After the visa-free passage is approved between Turkey and Ukraine, we will likely double this figure,” he added.
March/03/2017